Fitness trackers might make weight loss programs less effective

Before starting a weight loss program, you might be tempted to go
pick up a new wearable fitness tracker.

It seems to make sense: A device that keeps track of what you're
doing has to help you hit your fitness goals, right?

Maybe not. Adding those devices to your regimen may actually
be less effective than sticking to a more traditional
and non-technologically enhanced weight loss program, at least
according a
new study published September 20 in the Journal of the
American Medical Association.

Young adults in the two-year study who didn't use wearable
devices to track their workouts lost on average five pounds more
than participants who had the trackers.

Following the data

The researchers behind the study write that they wanted to see if
wearable devices would help people more effectively lose weight
over a long period of time. While other studies showing tracking
devices to be effective exist, many of those studies are only
short term, according to the authors. Since the tricky part of
weight loss is keeping extra pounds off over an extended period
of time, longer studies are needed.

The team conducted the study at the University of Pittsburgh and
recruited 471 young adults, aged 18-35, all with body mass
indexes indicating they were in the
overweight or obese range. The researchers also measured
characteristics like body fat percentage, lean mass, bone
density, and cardiovascular fitness, which is helpful, since
there are
reasons to criticize BMI as a solo indicator of fitness.

For the first six months, everyone in the study was told how to
set a new diet and put on an exercise program that was designed
to gradually ramp up moderate to vigorous exercise activity over
time. Participants met weekly for this time period.

After six months, participants were randomly divided into two
groups: one group continued to self-report their diet and
exercise notes on a website and the other participants were given
a fitness tracker and access to a commercial website so they
could use the tracker to log physical activity and continue to
self-report dietary information. Both groups received weekly text
messages and a monthly call from staff to check on their
progress.

Both groups lost significant weight over the first six months,
though there wasn't a significant differences between the two. By
12 months, the group on the standard non-wearable intervention
had kept more weight off than the group using trackers, something
which continued to be true at follow ups after 18 and 24 months.

Neither group kept off all the weight they initially lost, but on
average, people using wearable trackers lost and kept off an
average of 7.7 pounds, while people doing a "standard" weight
loss intervention lost and kept off an average of 13 pounds.

So are fitness trackers bogus?

In the study, the authors conclude: "Devices that monitor and
provide feedback on physical activity may not offer an advantage
over standard behavioral weight loss approaches."

Not necessarily. For one thing, people using wearable devices did
lose weight, even if they didn't lose as much as the people on
the standard program. The also showed improvements in the other
measures like body fat that researchers looked at.

It's also possible that using another fitness tracker or using it
in a different way would have been more effective. Participants
for this study enrolled between 2010 and 2012, with data
collection finishing by 2014. The specific tracking system they
used has been discontinued, and it's possible another system
might work better. The researchers also note that that perhaps it
could have been more effective if the participants who used the
tracker had used it from the beginning of the study.

However this study does cast doubt on the idea that devices like
this are necessarily better than a traditional weight loss
regimen of any kind.

Just like for most things diet and fitness, the solution is
probably not a product or a pill. In some cases those things
might help, but none of them is magically effective in isolation.